Google (Mountain View, Calif.) has announced the launch of a new program designed to expose its search-engine users to products from retailers besides Amazon (Seattle).
The program, called Shopping Actions, will refer shoppers to retailers’ products related to their search and will reportedly collect a yet-to-be-disclosed commission on converted sales. According to Fortune, the initiative is designed to prevent a would-be monopoly on such searches directing to products from Amazon alone, something that would be advantageous to retailers when shoppers use Google’s voice assistant-based shopping services.
Presently, when shoppers search Google for products, their first search result will often point to merchandise listed on Amazon.com. This program will reportedly combat this current one-sided approach.
“We have taken a fundamentally different approach from the likes of Amazon because we see ourselves as an enabler of retail,” Google Retail Chief Daniel Alegre told Reuters.